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Hi - Just wondered if anyone had any tips for telling the difference between cobalt, bristol and irish blue glass................and any other types I may not have got confused by yet. I would post a photograph but it's so hard to tell the actual colour of "blue" glass from a picture. The bowl I have is a lovely purple/blue colour. I don't think it's anything special but it got me looking at blue glass...........hence the confusion!

Nic - I was very interested to hear that Holmegaard had made blue glass with a purple tint..............I'm particularly drawn to Scandinavian glass that's why I bought this - it's very simple (quite heavy). I posted a couple of photos as you might have seen something like it yourself. Still amazed I can't get it to photograph the colour it actually is!

At the risk of this turning into a mutual admiration society.............NICE JUG! I like the way the foot "lifts" the body of the jug - it looks more squat than I would have expected - is it distorted in the photograph?

I just realised that the halo on the white surface under the jug is the same colour as I had on the paper I put under my bowl - you can really see the purple there. Funny how it doesn't photograph though.

According to our friend Ivo (Glass fact file a-z), Bristol blue is so called because the colorant, zaffre (containing cobalt oxide), was produced in or imported through Bristol (1760-90 and 1820-40). It is a greenish blue to dark blue lead glass. So it is a cobalt blue, but you pays your money and choses your shade :lol: